The second Rays* trailer offers dire prospects for a member of the titular UCM team. Marvel revealed several trailers for upcoming MCU releases at D23 Brasil 2024, including Captain America: Brave New World and Rays* – two of Marvel Studios’ biggest projects for 2025 alongside The Fantastic Four: Getting Started and Disney+ shows like And if…? season 3. Ahead of Rays*With a release date of May 2025, the film’s premise is clear: Valentina Allegra de Fontaine brings together a group of assassins against their will to complete a deadly mission.
The MCU’s Thunderbolts are very different from the original Marvel Comics team. Instead of a team of supervillains posing as stand-ins for the Avengers, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s Thunderbolts are a ragtag group of ex-criminals who are pressured into working for her. This change makes the team more similar to later iterations, like Norman Osborn’s covert ops team, which quickly morphs into the Dark Avengers. Such a transformation could be an explanation for the asterisk in the Rays* title, revealed at the end of the film.
Thunderbolts* New trailer suggests Taskmaster can’t overcome the film’s first battle
Taskmaster barely appears in the second Thunderbolts trailer*
The second Rays* trailers show how American agent Yelena Belova and the Red Guardian meet Bucky Barnes. Other scenes featured in the trailer offer a glimpse of the team’s first meeting in a vault, as well as a fight sequence in the same Manhattan location where the Avengers banded together to fight the Chitauri. Curiously, Taskmaster only appears in one scene of the Rays* trailerfighting his teammates in the vault before Bob introduces himself. Taskmaster’s absence from every other scene suggests she won’t survive for long.
Since the Rays* Although the trailers only feature Taskmaster in the scene where the titular antiheroes first meet, it’s highly likely that their first battle will result in at least one casualty. Bob’s possible transformation into a Sentinel could also be the reason why Taskmaster dies before the Thunderbolts’ first official mission together. Although Taskmaster is powerful enough to fend off his fellow Thunderbolts and smart enough to escape Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, it would be impossible for her to survive an encounter with Sentry.
Taskmaster’s death in Thunderbolts* would be a bigger waste than his introduction in Black Widow
Thunderbolts* is a second chance for Taskmaster after Black Widow didn’t do the character justice
Phase 4 Black Widow introduced Taskmaster, but kept his identity a secret until the climax, where the villain was revealed to be General Dreykov’s daughter, Antonia – a survivor of Natasha Romanoff’s failed attack on Dreykov. Black WidowThe villain’s twist answered what Natasha meant when referring to her mission in Budapest and added an extra layer of personal conflict to the story, making the film’s main antagonist a victim of the protagonist. However, Black Widow removed almost all of the familiar elements from Taskmaster, who became a completely mute and emotionless antagonist with little personality.
After an unremarkable debut, Rays* offers Taskmaster the chance to become a three-dimensional character with his own personality. The fun interactions between teammates seen in Rays* trailers could allow Taskmaster to star in memorable scenes and develop relationships with his fellow antiheroes. By the end of the film, Antonia Dreykov could be a much closer adaptation of the original comic book character, known for her volatile temper and genuine passion for being a hitman.
Taskmaster’s death could result in a better version of the character
Thunderbolts* may kill Antonia Dreykov before introducing Anthony Masters
Although it ended up consolidating Antonia Dreykov as a one-dimensional character with no major influence on the MCU, Rays* could kill Taskmaster to open up a spot for the original comic book character. Taskmaster’s death could raise the stakes for the Thunderbolts and force them to play nice with each other. Or at the end of Rays* In the form of a post-credits scene or in a future MCU project, Anthony Masters could take on the mantle of Taskmaster and begin working as a hitman for a variety of MCU villains, such as Kingpin, Baron Zemo, or the new organization of the Ten. Rings.
After the death of Antonia Dreykov in Rays*the MCU could feature a live-action version of Anthony Masters
In the comics, Anthony Masters has the innate ability to replicate anyone’s abilities and talents. Anthony also took a copy of the Super Soldier serum, which caused his mind to constantly overwrite his memories. Becoming “Taskmaster”, Anthony became a mercenary and set up an academy of assassins. Since then, Taskmaster has accomplished a wide variety of feats, such as training John Walker to become Captain America and fighting Thor and Deadpool alone. After the death of Antonia Dreykov in Rays*the MCU could feature a live-action version of Anthony Masters.